How would-be pedophiles use Craigslist—and how they get caught

"Free babysitting"? Those crazy ads on Craigslist aren't all jokes.

Craigslist controversy

By virtue of its simplicity, popularity, and price (free!), Craigslist has been a huge boon to anyone in the market for local used goods. In my own house, the dining room table, bedroom dresser, kitchen stroller, deck chairs, and rowing machine all came through people we met through the site—and every single transaction has turned out to involve cool people, good quality products, and no problems.

But those same virtues always mean the site will attract not-so-cool people. Last year, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" contacted Craigslist to complain that his Arizona office had just wrapped up "an undercover investigation that spanned several months during 2010 and 2011,” one that “resulted in the arrest of two individuals for conspiracy to commit bestiality." According to a separate press release, “Sheriff's detectives set up meetings through computer communications where the suspects believed they were meeting the owners of dogs to have sex with the animals at a hotel."

No one had ever provided him with underwear; no one had ever taken him up on the "free babysitting."

More common criticisms have concerned prostitution. Craigslist used to have a section called "erotic services" that became notorious among law enforcement for rampant use by prostitutes and johns. State Attorneys General from across the US pressured Craigslist until the site changed the section to "adult services" and instituted more hurdles to posting. It also worked with groups like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to tighten up Craigslist's phone verification system and make other changes. But eventually, Craigslist bowed to the pressure and killed the section altogether.

"Those who formerly posted adult services ads on Craigslist will now advertise at countless other venues," said the company's director of law enforcement relations in a 2010 Congressional hearing. "It is our sincere hope that law enforcement and advocacy groups will find helpful partners there." In other words: we were willing to help the cops police this stuff; good luck getting that cooperation from less savory sites.

Warner's case makes the questions clear, though it provides no easy answers: was it better that he have access to such a simple tool for finding those who shared his perverse interests, since the very openness of Craigslist made such posts easy to find and then police? Or would it have been better to vet such posts more closely first, driving them further underground but also making it more difficult for Warner to find fellow travelers?

The existence of numerous posts like Warner's on the site might suggest that his method had produced results, and that he routinely met young girls for abusive encounters. But that apparently wasn't true—as he told police that night after the parking lot arrest, he posted on Craigslist about once a week. No one had ever provided him with underwear; no one had ever taken him up on the "free babysitting."

Warner further claimed that he would "have been shocked if a real 13 year old girl showed up that day," according to a later FBI document, in part because the chats didn't seem like "something a 13 year old would say." Had a real 13 year old been waiting in that McDonald's parking lot with a younger sister in tow, Warner claims that he would have "probably freaked out and left." Warner said that it was all "just fantasy."

Yet he had expected something or he wouldn't have driven all that way. And he had talked about the Vicky photos and mailed shots of his genitalia to someone claiming to be 13 and he had shared possible child porn with Detective Smith. Baltimore County police obtained a search warrant for Warner's apartment the next day and seized a laptop, an iPod, a cell phone, and a thumb drive. The FBI was later asked to help with the material and obtained its own federal warrant to go through the devices. "Numerous" images of child pornography were found.

The deal

The guilty plea

In late 2011, Warner signed a plea deal for a single federal count of using an "interstate commerce facility to entice [a] minor to engage in sexual activity." He was sent to his parents' home to await sentencing and ordered to stay away from pornography. He discovered the site Goodreads, where a "lordbdub" from Joppa, Maryland hung out in Stephen King fan groups and said he was looking for writing that "actually makes me FEEL something. If a book can move me emotionally or physically then theres a good chance I'll enjoy it." He planned to read 120 books a year in 2012.

The prospect of prison clearly alarmed him. User "lordbdub" joined the Prison Talk website in December 2010 and posted a comment in the "Headed to Prison" forum. The comment heading was "Can someone help me please?" An attorney responded with a bit of helpful advice: "First, shut up. Do not talk the facts of the case. Do not talk about your mental health history."

You need to go over to the Loving a Sex Offender forum and browse around there. Educate yourself on civil commitment, and see if your state has a civ confinement law, or are you federal? See, if you are a sex offender, and they decide that because of the risk of re-offending due to a mental disease or defect is high enough, you could be committed to a civil "treatment facility" for the rest of your life. Admission that you have these problems, as you have here, is a big thing. That you "wanted to get caught" is another thing they'll look at....

"Lordbdub" deleted the body of the post.

On January 13, 2011, he learned his fate: 120 months in a federal prison. The judge left him free until March, when he had to turn himself in to the Bureau of Prisons and begin a new life for the next decade. Once he gets out, he will remain a registered sex offender.

Cop on the beat

The Internet is an enormous communications network, and there's no possible way to stop all the people like Warner from looking for online comrades. Leaning on a site like Craigslist may or may not reduce the problem, but no one believes than any single site or any single set of rules can bring it to a complete stop.

Warner certainly knew that he could troll all sorts of unusual venues looking for his kicks. My own research showed that, a few weeks before his 2010 arrest, he had responded to a Yahoo Answers question—hardly the first spot someone would think of going to bust someone looking for child sex.

"Do guys like when a girl can put her legs behind her head? Turn on? or what haha," asked the initial poster. Warner responded, "YES!!!! Well i guess it depends on how hot the girl is, but i would say if your a good looking girl AND can do that its HOT!!!... better yet....send me a pic of it!!!! lordbdub@yahoo.com"

But the Internet gives investigators opportunities of their own—finding and contacting people like Warner requires only e-mail and a Web browser. And despite the perceived anonymity of the Internet, most actual Internet-enabled crimes have some component through which identity is quite easily revealed. Trolling Craigslist for sex with children? Offenders need to contact their targets by phone or e-mail or instant message; eventually, they need to meet. Subpoenas, stakeouts, undercover officers—all the traditional policing tools still work in this new world.

The new policing doesn't rely on cops coming in as computer geniuses, either; training in such topics has become routine. Detective Smith was able to take courses throughout his career in topics like "electronic surveillance," "intercept of secure communications," "protecting children online," "basic online undercover investigations," and "FBI peer to peer advanced computer training."

Smith got good enough at it that by 2011, he was giving seminars of his own (PDF). In one talk on "Chatting, Sexting, Social Networks—Who are you really talking to?", Smith showed fellow investigators how "social networking sites, as well as sexting, chat rooms, etc. are the same when it comes to investigation techniques." And he demonstrated "how children and adults are tricked into believing they are talking to someone else online."